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Team Clinton’s Web-Chat, Woman to Woman

By Patrick Healy March 28, 2007 5:13 pmMarch 28, 2007 5:13 pm

Note to voters: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is so family friendly, she is “very conscious of not calling during bedtime hours” when her senior staff is home putting their kids to bed, according to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager.

This revelation was one of several plums from a “PowerLunch” Web chat hosted today by four female advisers on the Clinton presidential team. They were not “plums” in the newsworthy sense, but in the way they revealed the you-go-girl attitude that this campaign seems to see as a winning formula (with female supporters, at least).

Every response from team Clinton during the chat was highly polished with a rah-rah gloss, and the clear, if unstated, message was that All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women.

Here are some excerpts of the webchat, recorded by a reporter who was following the webchat online. (Be sure to check out the advisers’ response about folks who think Hillary is “too aggressive” and “too powerful.”) The chat was held on Senator Clinton’s “Day of Women’s Outreach,” which included an endorsement from the National Organization for Women.

Cindy: What can women do to help Hillary?

Ann Lewis, senior adviser: Well you’ve made a great start by signing up. Now help us get our message out. Think about the conversations you have everyday with friends and colleagues. Maybe someone is concerned about health care or their child’s education.

Now think about how you can bring up your support for Hillary — because she can make the changes we need, and build a better future for our children.

(break)

Christine: Do any of you have families? If so, how do you balance work and family?

Patti Solis Doyle, campaign manager: Yes, I have a nine year old daughter and a five year old son and a two month old black lab. Balancing work and family is very difficult, but I happen to work for a woman who understands the importance of it and is respectful of it. I try my best to make every parent-teacher conference and doctor’s visit, to get home in time, to read books to my children, and put them to bed. Once they’re asleep, I work until the wee hours. Hillary is very conscious of not calling during bedtime hours.

Neera Tanden, policy director: I have a four year old daughter and an almost two year old son and I also try to get home for dinner. For me and millions of other women it is hard to balance work and family. It helps to have a great, understanding husband. But every time that I feel pangs of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president. And what a role model Hillary will be to her.

(break)

Gerry: How long have you known Hillary? How did you meet her?

Patti Solis Doyle: I’ve known her for almost 16 years. I met her when I joined the BIll Clinton for president campaign in 1991.

The day I arrived in Little Rock, AR from Chicago, Hillary had been asking for help in her role as the No. 1 surrogate for her husband, and the campaign manager asked me to go meet with her at the Governor’s Mansion.

Immediately she said that she wanted to do everything she could to get her husband elected and would travel anywhere the campaign asked her to, but that she needed to be home for Chelsea, and that was the most important part of her schedule — making time for Chelsea.

The rest, as they say, is history, and I’ve been with her ever since.

(break)

Elanore B: I’m talking to folks about Hillary as a presidential candidate and a typical response is she’s too aggressive, or she’s too powerful.” Both men and women are saying this to me. How would you respectfully respond in a way to turn a negative into a positive.

Leecia Eve, senior policy adviser: My quick thoughts on “she’s too aggressive” or “she’s too powerful” are, that’s great because she doesn’t abuse that power but instead has spent her entire adult life trying to exercise whatever power she has to work on behalf of children, who seldom have a voice, to support our troops, who still dont have the body armor they need, to fight on behalf of millions of Americans, including the 9 million children who still dont have access to quality and affordable health care. I for one am THANKFUL that she is both powerful and shares my values, including the need to work hard to improve the quality of life for so many Americans who, despite their best efforts, are struggling to survive.

Patti Solis Doyle: Hillary is a strong, experienced leader, and is the best equipped to lead this country. That is the biggest positive there is!

Arizona Joel: Patti, I agree and always point this out.

Patti Solis Doyle: Right on!

(break)

Tom: i’m concerned about iraq. what are hillary’s plans?

Ann Lewis: That’s a really important question, and one that Hillary has been clear on. As she says, if she were president she would not have begun this war — and if it’s still going on when she becomes president, she will end it!

Hillary has called for redeployment of American troops; for a cap on the number of troops sent to Iraq without adequate equipment and training.

Yesterday, Hillary joined other Senate Democrats in voting for a timeline for withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Unfortunately, George Bush says he will veto this legislation. Hillary will continue to work with her colleagues in the Senate to build political support for legislation that brings an end to this war that has cost us so much in lives, in resources, and in the respect of nations around the world.

(break)

Sharon Walters: I seem to hear”Well she didn’t do much for health care as first lady, why should we think she’d do more now? My answer has been” She DID try, but Republican Senate/House majority stopped it everytime she tried. But as president she WILL put this through.

Neera Tanden: Look, Hillary tried to get universal health care passed in the early 90s, and it didn’t pass. But she kept fighting, and as a result, she helped create the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which has provided health insurance to millions of children. She is fighting to lower health care costs through the expanded use of health information technology. This is something she can get done in the Senate, but I want to be clear that she’ll pass universal health care as president.

(break)

Sally: What is it like being the women leaders on a presidential campaign?

Neera Tanden: For me, I may be more aware of the concerns Americans may have about health care, child care, education, and insuring that Hillarys proposals respond to these concerns.

Patti Solis Doyle: It’s great. This is all about electing the next President of the United States. We come to work every day and work very hard. Inevitably some senior staff meetings begin with cute things our kids said the night before, but in the end the women and men alike on this campaign are all working towards getting this country on the right track by electing Hillary Clinton as President.

Last year in California. The democratic party choose Angelides who was doomed to lose. As an independent, I think this what is going to happen in 2008. In the latest Gallup poll, for the first time since 2003. Hillary Clinton favorable rating among all americans has dipped below 50%.http://www.galluppoll.com/content/Default.aspx?ci=27019&VERSION=p

I constantly hear about Hillary’s views and work for children but have little or no knowledge about her views on Seniors who are finished caring for their families. Are they to be left hanging with only the prospect of giving up more and more of their subsistence to benefit the children of others. This includes the children of Illegal immigrants who are singlehandedly draining the resources of the states and their progams and finances as well.

RAS, that point irked me as well. Healy wrote:
“Every response from team Clinton during the webchat was highly polished with a rah-rah gloss, and the clear, if unstated, message was that All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women.”

But the message was that she would make life better for everyone, men and women, so it seems peculiar for Healy to single out “All Women.” But I am glad Healy posted the excerpt about Hillay’s efforts on SCHIP and health information technology.

Hillary Clinton is a strong and experienced woman who has served as an advocate for women, family and children for 30 years. Long before her husband ran for public office she worked with the Children’s Defense Fund to try to create better opportunities for financially disadvantaged children. She fought hard in the White House for quality, affordable, universal health care and republicans and the insurance industry did every thing they could to defeat her plan and destroy her personally. She was instrumental in the passing of the Children’s Health Insurance Plan which has provided coverage to many previously uninsured poor and middle class children. And on a personal level, she stood strong and remained posided during the taxpayer funded Ken Starr witch-hunt.

I will vote for Hillary because I believe it is time for a change. Meaning a positive change. I believe perhaps idealistically that a woman will bring more wholeness to our country. What this means to me is she will think about all of our countries aches and pains and try to help heal them. Hopefully, she will do this not coincidentally with a war or other catastrophy. It seems sad to me that our Vets have to struggle to get the care they need, once they have laid their lives on the line. Yet, the subject of MONEY always seems first and formost. I love this country but feel very sad for it. I hope Hillary can fix it. sincerely erika

WHAT A CROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hill’s handlers would issue press releases to that effect. Everyone on the payroll supports Hill, but forget about women, period.

How many women in the country can identify with a woman who has chased the presidency for sixteen years plus?

Sorry, but the answer is less than less than less 1%.

Most women care about their families not about
the maniacal pursuit of the Oval Office. Come to think of it, most women don’t think Hill is very
feminine. They see her more as a truck driver wearing track/running shoes chasing a vain ambition. Hill’s handlers are speaking to the choir not the universe of women voters where they will get little comfort.

It seems to me that more people like Hillary than the poll shows! She is strong but who wants a weakling for president – somebody has to bring about universal health coverage and one would have to be strong to fight the insurance companies and the drug companies who would not want to surrender thier strangle hold on America – who can better represent the weak and sick people of this country – go for Hillary we are for you all the way – we will win the 2008 election with hands! down – the Republicans don’t stand a chance!

Toohot’s comment unfortunately illustrates why women have not, until very recently, been in positions of power in our government. By your logic the only politcal women everyday American women can get behind are the ones that put the success of others (read-husbands)in front of their own. Well, Hillary did this, and now it is her time to have her own “maniacal pursuit of the Oval Office”. Isn’t that how every other American president did it??

I think Patrick Healy hit the nail on the head. This chat transcript reads like some perverted version of “right/ideal” answers for the Q&A section of some lame beauty pageant. The responses are about as inspiring, sincere, and moving as drying paint or growing grass. As a man, I wonder if any mean work for Hill’s campaign and whether the male staffers are required to relate “cute things our kids said the night before…”

Plus, what’s-up with the continuing claims of deep experience for Hillary? She’s got 6 years in the Senate and lived in the White House as 1st Lady for 8 years, which makes her only barely more experienced than either Chelsea who’s too young to run anyway. Hillary is simply unelectable, but if the Dems want to kamikaze (again!!!) in 2008, then so be it. Hillary may appeal to women with kids, but there’s a whole lot of other people to whom she does not appeal. The worse possible matchup would be Hillary vs. Rudy. In that case, I’d simply abstain because neither one is hewn from presidential timber.

Many of the comments that have been posted are ok and some are absurd. The absurd comments are what is wrong with the world today. There appear to be more people trying to divide the general population than unite it. I hate to hear people refer to “women’s issues” when talking about children, health care and I suppose “men’s issues” are defense deciding laws and economics. It came as a huge shock to the Republicans when Bill Clinton was elected. As a result they hammered away at Bill & Hillary and let’s not forget that they wanted to get even for Nixon (still!). The truth is that Bill Clinton was a great president with some personal problems. I am getting pretty tired of the Bushies using 9/11/01 as an excuse for running the reputation of America down so far that it may take 30 years to recover.
Men who assert themsleves and have ambition beyond raising a family are applauded but when a woman has ambition she is being less than a woman or accused of trying to be a man.
I know as many fathers that are concerned about healthcare and children as mothers. The issues are not blue or red, not male or female, not black or white. Unlike “The West Wing” where the writers get to choose the issues to address each episode, the American President has to be ready to handle it all at any given time.
As for me, I see nobody else who is running so far that has better experience than Senator Clinton to balance the job and return honor to America. Peace has never resulted from war. Sometimes when I say this a person will ask if it was wrong for us to enter World War II. It was not. But it was wrong to try and artificially carve up Europe, the Middle East, etc. We are still paying for that error. I, for one, do not feel wise enough to say if dropping the atomic bomb was right. It didd end the war but look at the cost.
I feel very strongly that we need to retrain the military, severly revamp the “defense industry” that has almost had a blank check since WWII, and reteach our children what civics is. This is where I feel Hillary stands 10 feet tall. She has realized from college that investing in the children and civil, human rights is the best defense America will ever have.
By the way. If postings are not to be abusive it appears that toohot2handle is a world class expert in evaluating what “women” think as if we are a monolithic group.

Truck drivers are ambitious? And they wear track shoes? Either you are just bad at metaphors or you’re making an unfortunate stab at calling Hillary butch. That’s tired, misogynistic, not to mention untrue (and if it were, who cares?). But I’m presuming you don’t know too many real working women, femme, butch or otherwise. That 1% stat must have come off a Fox News ticker. Women and men can care about their families and find different ways to make their lives better, including seeking elective office. Say what you will about Hillary’s political choices, but by all accounts she’s a very good mother who raised a fine daughter.

What is really amazing is the negativity with a lot of women. Sad really, because there are plenty of men that are helping you pile on the negative. Ladies, how well do you REALLY know Hillary Clinton? Are you even interested? Or is your minds already closed? I’m a male, not afraid of a strong woman and I will vote proudly for Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

Observation: if barack needed one more reason not to have run(i’d vote for him any day, mind you) he should note how comfortable the Clinton campaign is in touting her gender. Hillary has consistently said throughout this campaign(e.g. at the DNC winter meeting) that “let’s vote for our first female president”.

it is clear that obama’s camp isn’t sure how to deal with his identity during this campaign. think his decision to disinvite his pastor, al sharpton’s attacks on his resume(for a guy who ended racial profiling in Illinois, worked as community organiser). it’s also interesting to note that much of his appeal is his international experience, multicultural/ethnic upbringing.

in short, it might mean that the idea of a black commander in chief(it would be the first in world history) hasn’t settled on people’s minds quite yet, but a female president has.

If obama doesn’t win the nomination it would be because he couldn’t tout how his unique personal and career history makes him uniquely a refreshing change to america’s image and standing to the rest of the world.

Hillary Clinton’s an advocate for children? Really! What valuable message did she impart to her only daughter?

She knows, Chelsea knows, we all know. The message is: Continue in a phony relationship with a spouse who chose to run after other women…one whose adultery became world-wide news.

Normal women would have looked upon him as a disease to be gotten rid of. Yet this “strong” woman continues to be married to him, despite the details of his latest-known disloyality to his wife becoming international news.

Her political ambitions are obviously more important to her than her marriage and family.

From “one who cares about children”, this is the message she has chosen to give her daughter.

America is ready for a wise, strong president with an educated instinct of how to deal with foreign countries. This person must risk making decisions which are unpopular. No one has the right to undermine the values of our great country.

We need a president who will stand up and speak out for all of us.

For those who say it’s time for a woman president, a black president, or a Jewish president, sorry, but these are NOT the necessary qualifications for putting the best person in this position.

It’s a bit scary that some people think this way. Gender and race are NOT relevant to the subject. Our focus needs to be on the person best suited to lead the country

None of the issues being raised against Hillary won’t be issues at all if she were a man; they’d all be ‘strengths’ and positive attributes. Is it possible that most of those who are against Hillary are simply afraid of an intelligent, principled woman president who is also not hard to look at? She has all the qualities that W lacks and which make him a failure of a president.

Let’s face it, the White House/USA is quite a mess today, domestically, internationally. It needs a good housekeeper in Hillary.

Joanne, your judgmental attitude astounds me. You ignore all that Hillary has done for children – insurance for children with SCHIP, the adoption act making it easy for people to adopt and for foster children to receive care, and advocating for the rights of battered and impoverished children. After she graduated from Yale law, she worked at the Yale Child Study center and Children’s Defense Fund. Ignoring her accomplishments, you simply attack her decision to stay with Bill and what kind of message that sent to Chelsea. I agree that fidelity is an important part of marriage. But what I find lacking in many marriages is respect, compatibility and teamwork. Read books on the Clintons and you’ll see that whatever their sexual relationship may be, they genuinely have admiration and affection for eachother, and it’s not about rise to power. She gave up her political ambition in DC (she worked on the Nixon impeachment team) to marry a law professor in Arkansas while she made the money for the family working as a lawyer. Bill wasn’t even successful with his first shot to become a Congressman. But Hillary and Bill have stayed through thick and thin. And as one Clinton aide noted, Bill would have stayed the most popular law professor in Arkansas had it not been for Hillary. As for Chelsea, I think Hillary did a great job of protecting Chelsea from the public intruding on Chelsea’s life during the Monica scandal. I suppose you don’t know any women who decide to stay married for the sake of their children? You should also look at the flip side of the coin – the men who cheat – weren’t they the ones who violated their marital vows and breached their wives’ trust? I guess if you are going to be self-righteous about fidelity, you should also knock out Giuliani, McCain, and Gingrich. And Hillary wasn’t even the one who cheated.

moi, good insight. I think the explanation for that is that women are over 50% of the population, and most men are married to women (or were, or plan to, and the gays have many female friends). But with blacks, they are not a majority of the population so there is a huge segment of the population who hasn’t been exposed to many black people. I think perhaps they are suspicious that a black president will further “their own cause” that does not involve non-blacks, whereas a woman president, even if she furthers women’s cause, will have benefited men because most are married to one. Of course, I think this suspicion about blacks is unwarranted. As a female and a minority, I do feel like I need to stand up for Hillary when people are sexist and Obama when people are racist. But I don’t intend to vote based on gender or color but will vote based on who I think will make the best president.

These comments do create a sort of cognitive dissonance, when you lay them side by side with some of the strong-arm backdoor politics we have heard about with this campaign. I want to believe it’s different but sounds like the same old same old. There is no question she will be able to govern. Maybe Hillary is different, maybe she really will bring a change, maybe she is the good policy without her husband’s baggage. But the Clinton’s were in the White House when Rwanda happened. And did nothing. Sierre Leone. Liberia. Nothing. Universal Health Care? Don’t ask. Don’t tell? I think I have good reason to be skeptical. It has nothing to do with being a woman, with the color of your skin, with your religious faith. It’s about trust and cognitive dissonance is a poor cure.

The problem with many of these polls is that they don’t explain who they surveyed. For example, if there is an uptick of people willing to vote democrat in 2008 so that there is a 40% of US registered voters wanting to vote Republican and 60% wanting to vote democrat, then aren’t the pollsters skewing the results if they evenly (50-50%) polled people who identify themselves as Republicans and Democrats? I’m not a pollster so I have no idea, but just a thought.

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